Thanks to all for taking my all-important title survey; for me, it was a lovely distraction from working on the book. And perhaps its greatest benefit was that it showed me how absolutely CRAZY I have become over this issue of the title. Yes, a title is important (Trimalchio vs. The Great Gatsby, anyone?), but I’ve really gone overboard. I think I’ve either come up with or heard every possible combination of words that involve the word “river.”
So, this exercise has inspired me to take a deep breath and calm down. (And to come with the perfect title BEFORE I start the next novel.)
Without further ado, here’s the breakdown, starting with what people liked (or, at least, were not horrified by since the question asked for any titles that sounded good):
Authoritative, scientific note: Percentages have been rounded.
A Handful of Water
39%
Reversing the River
33%
Moving the River
The River Decides
Tied at 20%
Water in One Hand
17%
Like Water in One Hand
A Marvel of Modern Engineering
Tied at 13%
The River Within the River
10%
[sorry, beautiful Thomas Lux poem where this line came from]
And the results for the single title that people selected as the one they did not like:
A Marvel of Modern Engineering
42%
The River Within the River
24%
Like Water in the Hand
11%
The River Decides
8%
Reversing the River
Moving the River
Tied at 6%
Water in One Hand
3%
A Handful of Water
1%
So what will I do? Here’s where it’s nice that writing is a dictatorship of sorts. Even though the people have spoken, I have discovered a new title that I’m pondering (noooo!):
THE WAYS OF WATER
I’ve been pondering it for a couple of days now, and I must admit that my pondering is tending negative at the moment, though I haven’t quite decided 100%. Right now I’m leaning toward:
REVERSING THE RIVER
Since I’ve actually read the book, this one fits literally and metaphorically, and I like the rhythm of it. The survey helped me see that it’s not “hated” (like, ahem, other choices I truly loved [The River Within the River]). And one piece of titling advice that I heard early on has stuck with me, whether rightly or wrongly: that a good title puts a specific image of something concrete in the reader’s mind. While I like A HANDFUL OF WATER (which, ahem, I did not think of myself), it reminds me of Evelyn Waugh’s A HANDFUL OF DUST and I would have to force in an “explanation” of the title in the text to make it seem not arbitrary. REVERSING THE RIVER seems to rise naturally from the book itself.
As for where REVERSING THE RIVER came from…well, I’m not sure. I found it written on a sticky note from the pad at my desk; the scribbled scrap had been moved at some point into my (bulging) folder of title ideas. I had looked through this folder countless times, and believe me when I say that there are a ba-zillion options and ideas, and this tiny little note had been overlooked for quite a while.
So it could have been something Steve shouted out at me as he passed by my office. Or it could have been something someone emailed me that I wrote down. Or it could have been something I thought of. Or maybe it just made its way into that folder to be rediscovered when I needed it.
